The Lower Dauphin (LoDa) Artwalk started on a blazing hot July evening with perhaps eight venues and 250 visitors. The idea was to attract people to downtown Mobile between Arts Alive festivals in the spring and fall.

The artwalk has evolved into something much larger and more diverse, and it has energized the downtown arts scene.

On Friday the expanded artwalk celebrates its fifth anniversary from 6 until 9 p.m. with more than two dozen venues, openings of new art exhibits, live music, a community mural and a scavenger hunt, among other family-friendly activities. (See information box.)

The driving force behind LoDa is Chris Barraza, assistant director of the city’s Neighborhood and Community Services Department, who says downtown needed a way to sustain the momentum generated by Arts Alive.

“Arts Alive was great and had this wonderful synergy and people were talking about it for weeks afterward — and then we’d have to wait another six months for it to happen,” she says. “And then another six months.

"I thought, ‘We need to keep up this momentum. There’s all this great feedback from the community. Let’s see if we can do it more often.’ Doing it once a month made it a lot of sense.”

The inaugural event took place in July 2005.

“It was ungodly hot and I was tickled that we had 250 people there,” Barraza says. “I was just beside myself. I couldn’t believe it. That’s how it all began and we’re just trying to keep up all that momentum we created. We want to build upon it, and I think it’s worked.”

Indeed it has. A handful of venues included the original Chesser Gallery at 306 Dauphin, Cathedral Square Gallery in its original location, Three Georges, Space 301 and the Mobile Arts Council.

The new incarnation of LoDa extends from Cathedral Square — with the Crescent Theater, Wellborn Ideas and Hernandez-Calhoun — west to Upper Dauphin and venues such as Karen Cassidy’s Blue Velvet Studio, Robertson Gallery, Ed Edwards’ glass studio and the relocated Cathedral Square Gallery; and east to Royal Street and venues such as Serda’s Coffee Company, Kangal Gallery, Veet’s and The Royal Scam.

Brad Robertson’s gallery is almost equidistant between Upper and Lower Dauphin, but he says the LoDa Artwalk provides more exposure than any other event downtown.

“Old and new faces appear each week, which means something is working,” he says. “As an artist, I receive priceless feedback on my work.”

Robertson says the LoDa artwalk is vital to the downtown arts scene.

“We don’t get a lot of walk-in traffic during the summer months,” he says, “and it takes the sight of a good crowd on occasion to keep us motivated.”

His favorite LoDa interlude?

“My favorite time would be the end of the night when I have to turn the lights back on for someone (who) just has to get one more look,” he says. “It reminds me that it is about the art.”

(Press-Register/Lyle W. Ratliff)A jellyfish hangs from the ceiling at Blue Velvet Studio on March 12, 2010, during the LoDa Artwalk. Blue Velvet featured a "black light" show featuring art that interacted with black lights, creating an otherworldly atmosphere.

Photographer and gallery owner Karen Cassidy says her story is “a bit unique, because for the whole first year we were only open on artwalk nights. So, if the artwalk didn’t exist, this whole part-time scenario to run an art gallery would not work at all.

“For me, probably more so than any other gallery, that artwalk was the opportunity that I needed.”

When an arts venue hits the right notes, word gets around. Blue Velvet Studio has enjoyed some impressive turnouts for its innovative exhibits including the “Art Gowns” show — which will be reprised Friday at the Mobile Arts Council — as well as the “Black Light” show and “Nudes in November.”

With expansion comes the obvious need for a people-mover system and more signage, preferably large banners that let visitors know a special event is taking place.

Organizers are discussing a tram system along a fixed route, which ought to make it easier for artwalkers to get around; and you can look for LoDa banners any time now.

Barraza also would like to see more stores, shops and galleries in the connector areas, the 200, 400-500 blocks of Dauphin and Royal streets. Another plus would be galleries and shops staying open later and more often, which would generate more foot traffic downtown more than one night a month.

Bob Burnett, executive director of the Mobile Arts Council, says the monthly artwalk definitely has attracted more people to downtown Mobile and reinforces the arts council’s mission of bringing people and art together.

The arts council stations someone at the door with a hand clicker to count people as they enter the council offices at 318 Dauphin St. This is not a precise method of gauging attendance, but it provides a reasonably accurate count, according to Burnett.

Last year the arts council averaged about 750 per artwalk; that number is way up, and recently the count hit 2,000 visitors, a significant leap forward. Burnett says the artwalk is “art as a community event, a shared experience.”

True, downtown Mobile retains some of the cliquishness that characterizes the Port City — each venue has its habitués — but over the years the LoDa artwalk has encouraged diversity and interaction among venues and their followers.

Any discussion of LoDa invariably comes down to numbers, but its value is much greater, according to Charlie Smoke, associate director of the Mobile Arts Council. He says the artwalk, among other things, has created a new and larger audience for art.

“I’m not sure you can prove this by pointing to sales, but I think many people who would never think of going into a gallery or a museum have done it and think nothing of it,” he says. “It’s broken down those barriers and made it comfortable and inviting for people to go into art spaces, to look at art and express themselves about the art.

“People are bringing their dogs, bringing kids in strollers, they come dressed in every style and fashion from casual to quite dressy, and I think that’s a good thing. It’s very diverse audience, not the kind of crowd I remember seeing at museum openings. It’s opened up the visual arts to much wider audience.”

David Calametti, creator and organizer of the Arts Alive festival, agrees.

“What’s exciting is the variety of people who have embraced opening their doors for artists or opening art galleries,” he says, “and the interesting thing for me is observing the difference between Fairhope’s artwalk and Mobile’s.

“Fairhope’s has a quaint, wonderful resort-town feel; the LoDa artwalk is vibrant, young and has a much higher energy level, it seems. It’s almost an urban artwalk versus the quaint, Fairhope type of artwalk.”

Arts Alive morphed from a spring/fall event to an annual, three-day celebration in the spring. When people ask Calametti why he doesn’t bring back the fall festival, he replies, “We do it every month.”

Linda Hall Tenhunfeld, director of Cathedral Square Gallery and a driving force behind 4th Saturday Upper Dauphin, describes LoDa as “a fun and entertaining social event opening the door for many in our community to experience the world of art. It also offers the connection between the art and the artists as many artists participate in the event.”

“We have at least 50 percent of our 65 artists in residence helping, meeting and greeting on these nights,” says Tenhundfeld. “Over the last five years, Artwalk has been the most wonderful venue bringing our family of artists closer together, strengthening the bond we share in the love of the visual arts and giving us the opportunity to have a great time while memories are made on this special night each month.”

Wayne McNeil, gallery and exhibitions director of The Paper Wasp, says LoDa “has established itself as a true part of downtown Mobile’s culture and identity these past five years.” The artwalk, he says, “brings people from all over the city to this beautiful, vibrant part of the city each month.”

He says the monthly event offers a platform for Mobile’s emerging artists to share their work with patrons and viewers.

If you go

What: 5th anniversary of the LoDa (Lower Dauphin) Artwalk

When: 6-9 p.m. July 9

Where: In and around Cathedral Square, downtown Mobile; and along Dauphin Street from Hamilton to Royal; and along Royal Street. More than 20 venues including Space 301, Mobile Arts Council, Paper Wasp, Blue Velvet Studio, Cathedral Square Gallery, Robertson Gallery, Handmade in Alabama, Wellborn Ideas, Serda’s Coffee Co., many more.

Note: 5th anniversary edition of LoDa will feature a community mural in Cathedral Square; live music; transportation; and “Imagine Mobile” mural project. Grab a scavenger hunt map and scour the galleries for clues that will get you a free CD of local musicians and Friday @ 5 artisans who have played ArtWalk over the past five years.

LoDa has reached the point where it can withstand the pressures associated with a simultaneous event that brings enormous crowds to downtown Mobile. Last month’s hot-rod weekend is a perfect example.

“The hot-rod show wasn’t designed to be tied into artwalk,” Calametti says, “but it created an interesting dynamic. An element of people got scared off because of the press about how bad parking was going to be. But it seemed as if we got people who came down for the hot rods and then did artwalk, or (they) came later.”

Barraza agrees. Most of the LoDa galleries and vendors were cool with the hot-rodders. LoDa had live music going in Bienville and Cathedral squares, and on the street corners, and the hot-rod crowds seemed to blend with the artwalk regulars.

Downtown merchants certainly benefit from the LoDa crowds — especially the bars and restaurants. The artwalk also has helped to lower the barriers that exist between downtown and the outlying areas, where some residents believe that nothing worthwhile is going on downtown or it isn’t safe, according to Calametti.

“The more we can have these regular events, the shorter the distance between Springhill and west mobile and downtown,” he says. “It’s sometimes a larger cultural divide getting people to come from (west Mobile) than getting them to come from Baldwin county.”

Mobile artist Vikki Turner Finch is a longtime arts activist and former director of the Chesser Gallery after the death of owner William Chesser in April 2006. She was one of the original artists in the gallery formerly known as William Chesser Art + Hair, then the Chesser Gallery, the Chesser Studio Project and now The Paper Wasp Gallery & Bindery. She is assistant curator and media liaison for The Paper Wasp.

(Press-Register/Ryan Tahbo)Barely three months after the death of gallery owner William Chesser in 2006, the Chesser Gallery drew an overflow crowd during the mid-July opening of the Zach DePolo show in downtown Mobile on July 14. Renamed The Paper Wasp, the gallery remains one of Mobile's most popular LoDa artwalk destinations.

“I think LoDa contributes greatly — no, make that wildly — to the urban experience in Mobile,” she says. “It is one of the events that makes downtown feel, at least once a month, like a vibrant, bustling city with arts gallery visitors standing shoulder to shoulder checking out the latest artwork, people enjoying tete a tetes in the cafés, and the sidewalks filled with a combination of performers, passers-by and patrons jostling for space.”

Turner Finch says the artwalk will be even better when more galleries spring up, as is happening now.

“The more the merrier, we say. It might be nice to have a colorful “Van GO” service that helps shuttle the patrons up and down the street,” she says. “Heck, what about rickshaws? That might be amusing. Dauphin is pretty long, and some of the galleries are a good hike away from each other.”

Of all the humorous anecdotes and oddball moments in the history of the space, Turner Finch recalls a story that longtime Chesser-istas still chuckle over.

“William was . . . notorious for waiting until the last moment to do all the little extras for openings,” she says. “You know, getting ice, getting food, making flower arrangements, etc. The result of all this is that he was always on a super-extremely-hyper-straighten-up-the-gallery-in-15-minutes drive just before we threw open the door for artwalk. It could be a little nerve-wracking.

“Well, this particular time we were cutting it close as always. William came running in the door just before the opening with a fresh bunch of flowers to arrange, chatting away at 90 miles an hour. He ran over to the counter, threw down the fresh flowers, snatched up the vase that was full of water from the old arrangement, ran to the door, threw it open and tossed the vase — and the water — into the middle of Dauphin Street. Crash!

“It was quite a smashing performance,” Turner Finch recalls. “Of course, he just meant to toss the water out, not the vase. For a moment we both just sort of stood there dumbfounded with our mouths open. Fortunately, no one was driving down the street at the time.

“William just burst into laughter, as did I, declared that breaking glass was a great way to get rid of negative energy, found another vase, did the arrangements — and we miraculously were ready to open on time. Again. Whew!”